The bizarre and beautiful miniature village in Barragup - formerly Abington, now dubbed Amaze Miniature Park - was a centerpiece of Mandurah tourism for years, and now new owners Paul and Rasa Hanssen are determined to bring it back up to scratch.
They opened the park on Husband Road three weekends ago, after it lay dormant for almost two years.
Mr Hanssen took an interest in the miniature village when he visited years ago.
“We’ve got a golf park in the Swan Valley, and it’s a very similar kind of tourism business. I enjoy gardens and the like, and we saw an opportunity to expand,” he said.
The Hanssens don’t plan to change too much about the park, but hope to restore it as one of Mandurah’s key tourism attractions.
“It was left in quite a state of disrepair and neglect, so we had to go right through the gardens, clean up the buildings, fix up the little people,” Mr Hanssen said.
“We’ve got a few new German style miniature buildings, and we’ll add to the park over time, but we’re moving away from just having the Abingdon village… It never really changed for the 13 years that it was operating, so I think it might go a bit stale without a revamp.”
The tearooms will remain closed for the time being, while the Hanssens decide what to do with it.
When I visited the park on a Monday, it was eerily empty, aside from a small group of friendly Singaporean tourists.
There were many tiny houses and hand-made inhabitants dispersed throughout the gardens, and the large hedge maze looked lush and enticing.
I was happy to find Shakespeare’s birthplace in miniature, along with the other notable Stratford-Upon-Avon replicas, but I can understand Mr Hanssen’s desire to move away from Abingdon Village alone.
The place needs a higher density of miniature housing: a bit of urban infill, if you will.
Emma, the lady in the ticket booth, mentioned something about a secret garden, and I was determined to find it.
An arched wooden door at the back of the park seemed about right, and stepping through it, Emma’s promise of an Alice-in-Wonderland rose garden was honoured.
The garden was peaceful, geometric and I half expected to bump into an anthropomorphic playing card, half-way through painting the roses red.
Mr Hanssen’s experience managing a golf park should come in handy bringing the mini golf at Amaze Miniature Park up to scratch.
“It’s not quite to the standard of our Swan Valley park yet, but we’ll get there,” he said.
Probably the highlight (for younger children and my easily-amused self) was operating the electronic train sets.
You can press a button yourself to set the pre-programmed trains into motion, and then follow them as they wind their way through the tiny houses.
It’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon, and it’s definitely a unique experience.
